5 Takeaways From Trump's First Foreign Trip As President

British Prime Minister Theresa May, U.S. President Trump and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg listen to Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel as he speaks during a working dinner meeting at the NATO headquarters during a NATO summit of heads of state and government in Brussels on Thursday.

(From left) Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, Saudi King Salman, U.S. first lady Melania Trump and President Trump visit a new Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday.

Pope Francis exchanges gifts with President Trump and first lady Melania Trump, on the occasion of their private audience, at the Vatican on Wednesday.

Alessandra Tarantino
/ AP

Originally published on May 30, 2017 9:47 am

President Trump has had, according to the White House, a successful maiden trip outside the U.S. But the bad news is he has to come home. Back in Washington, the ongoing Russia investigations await him along with another appeals court setback for his travel ban. So, now that Air Force One has wheeled down at Andrews Air Force Base, here are 5 takeaways from Trump's first foreign trip since becoming president.

1. Trump harangues NATO

In Trump's speech at the NATO summit in Brussels, he did briefly mention the "the commitments that bind us together as one," but he didn't give NATO what it wanted: an explicit endorsement of Article 5, which says that when invoked, NATO allies must aid a fellow ally under attack. This "an attack on one is an attack on all" pledge has only been invoked once in NATO's history — for the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Instead, the president used his speech to publicly scold the 23 out of 28 NATO countries that are not living up to their commitment to spend 2 percent of their GDP on defense. He described NATO as a kind of protection racket where the NATO allies pay the U.S. to defend them and even suggested NATO members are in arrears and owe the U.S. past dues.

On the substance of this issue, Trump is on solid ground. Past U.S. presidents have also complained about NATO "free riders." But by humiliating NATO leaders in public Trump may add to the growing backlash against him in Europe, making it harder for NATO leaders, who have to answer to their own voters, to give in to his demands.

The biggest idea of Trump's trip was to reorient U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East against Iran.

Where President Obama tried to encourage Iran to reform through the Iran nuclear agreement, President Trump sees a new alliance of Sunni Arab states and Israel, united against their common enemy Iran, as the key to curtailing terrorism and to a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

Details of exactly how this "outside in" approach would work are TBD but if it succeeds it would be a real foreign policy triumph for Trump.

3. Sheiks are better company than presidents and prime ministers

Trump seemed to have a much better time in Riyadh than Brussels. No, he didn't repeat his description of the Belgian capital as a "hellhole," but the contrast between Trump's warm embrace of Saudi autocrats and his awkward interaction with the democratically elected European leaders was hard to miss.

4. Beware the glowing orb

Every presidential trip abroad has its share of weird photo-ops. But the image of a smiling Trump communing with a couple of Middle Eastern dictators as they placed their hands on a glowing orb was hard to beat.